Kenneth Alan Richmond (10 July 1926 – 3 August 2006) was an English heavyweight

wrestler Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves diffe ...

. Richmond was born in London. His father abandoned the family when Richmond was 3. Before he got into

freestyle wrestling Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling. It is one of two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games, along with Greco-Roman wrestling, Greco-Roman. scholastic wrestling, High school wrestling and men's collegiate wrestling in the U ...

, he was a whale ship crewman. At 6'5" and 265 lbs, he won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

at the 1952 Olympics, as well as a bronze medal at the

1950 British Empire Games The 1950 British Empire Games were the fourth staging of what is now called the Commonwealth Games. It was held in Auckland, New Zealand, between 4 and 11 February 1950, after a 12-year gap from the third edition of the games. A documentary fil ...

, and a gold medal at the

1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games The 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, from 30 July to 7 August 1954. This was the fifth edition of the event that would eventually become known as the Commonwealth Games, the second post-war G ...

. He stayed fit enough into his later years to win medals for rollerblading and

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind-propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gain ...

in his 60s. Though he appeared as the wrestler Nikolas in

Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin ( ; December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, where he continued hi ...

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

, ''

Night and the City ''Night and the City'' is a 1950 British film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in London and at Shepp ...

'' (1950), Richmond was perhaps most recognisable as the shirtless

gongman The Gongman (also known as the "man-with-the-gong") is a company trademark for the J. Arthur Rank Organisation. It was used as the introduction to all Rank films, many of which were shot at their Pinewood Studios, and included those Rank distri ...

banging the enormous gong preceding the opening credits for films produced or distributed by the

Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) is a British entertainment conglomerate founded in 1937 by industrialist J. Arthur Rank. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the Uni ...

. He was the fourth – and last – actor to take the job. According to the BBC, he had revealed to friends that the gong seen in the Rank Organisation's opening never rang, as it was a

papier-mâché file:JacmelMardiGras.jpg, upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti Papier-mâché ( , , - the French term "mâché" here means "crushed and ground") is a versatile craft technique with roots in ancient China, in which waste paper is s ...

stage prop and he never actually struck it with any force, joking "If you hit that gong, you would have gone straight through."Hevesi He was a

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co- ...

for most of his life, being jailed as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In later life, he was a volunteer minister for the organisation.Hevesi He died at age 80 in his home in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

.https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/868363.rank-gong-film-icon-is-mourned/ (Richmond's wife, Valentina, died in 1996).

Filmography

References

Bibliography

* London ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

'', 12 August 2006
BBC Radio 4 ''Last Word''
18 August 2006 *

External links

Kenneth Alan Richmond
at the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Richmond, Kenneth 1926 births 2006 deaths Sport wrestlers from London English conscientious objectors Olympic wrestlers for Great Britain Wrestlers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1960 Summer Olympics British male sport wrestlers Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Wrestlers at the 1950 British Empire Games Wrestlers at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Wrestlers at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Olympic medalists in wrestling Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games gold medallists in wrestling Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in wrestling British people in whaling English Jehovah's Witnesses Medallists at the 1950 British Empire Games Medallists at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games